hat Lord Alfred Douglas was now in Calais. His
hatred of his father was the _causa causans_ of the whole case; he had
pushed Oscar into the fight and Oscar, still intent on shielding him,
declared that he had asked him to go abroad.

Sir Edward Clarke again did his poor best. He pointed out that the
trial rested on the evidence of mere blackmailers. He would not
quarrel with that and discuss it, but it was impossible not to see
that if blackmailers were to be listened to and believed, their
profession might speedily become a more deadly mischief and danger to
society than it had ever been.

The speech was a weak one; but the people in court cheered Sir Edward
Clarke; the cheers were immediately suppressed by the Judge.

The Solicitor-General took up the rest of the day with a rancorous
reply. Sir Edward Clarke even had to remind him that law officers of
the Crown should try to be impartial. One instance of his prejudice
may be given. Examining Oscar as to his letters to Lord Alfred
Douglas, Sir Frank Lockwood wanted to know whether he thought them
"decent"?

The witness replied, "Yes."

"Do you know the meaning of the word, sir?" was this gentleman's
retort.

I went out of the court feeling certain that the case was lost. Oscar
had not shown himself at all; he had not even spoken with the vigour
he had used at the Queensberry trial. He seemed too despairing to
strike a blow.

The summing up of the Judge on May 25th was perversely stupid and
malevolent. He began by declaring that he was "absolutely impartial,"
though his view of the facts had to be corrected again and again by
Sir Edward Clarke: he went on to regret that the charge of conspiracy
should have been introduced, as it had to be abandoned. He then
pointed out that he could not give a colourless summing up, which was
"of no use to anybody." His intelligence can be judged from one
crucial point: he fastened on the fact that Oscar had burnt the
letters which he bought from Wood, which he said were of no
importance, except that they concerned third parties. The Judge had
persuaded himself that the letters were indescribably bad, forgetting
apparently that Wood or his associates had selected and retained the
very worst of them for purposes of blackmail and that this Judge
himself, after reading it, couldn't attribute any weight to it; still
he insisted that burning the letters was an act of madness; whereas it
seemed to everyone of the slightest imaginati